Ideas for future development

[Ben Spackman]

I've sent these to Mike Bushell (haven't heard back, but I assume he got them.)

I held off during the beta-testing. Some of these I hope can make it in to post-release v. 7, and others maybe into the far-flung future of BW8 or 9.

I held off on these while the major things were being worked out.

1) Hebrew/Aramaic/ NW Inscriptions database.No one has this but Acccordance, and I'd like to see it with BW's robust
searching system. ( A few other Old Testament people I've
talked to expressed some disappointment at what they perceived
as a comparative lack of new OT resources in this one. When I
asked what they wanted to see, most replied the NW Semitic
inscriptions database, Jastrow, or #2 below. I would love to
see any and all of these, but particularly the NW Semitic
inscritions database.)

2) More robust importer, one that allows us to import the
Amarna texts, Ugaritic etc. (Both of those are available
electronically and free on the web. It's a shame we can't take
advantage of them) It would need to handle lacunae, and other
such textual variances, as found in the QSM database.

3) Modify the word list manager to have a description box
under each word list, like in the verse list manager.

4)Notes in the editor- Is it possible to program more than one
version to pop up? Sometimes it happens anyway, following the
pop-up settings in general, instead of the link setting.

5) How difficult would it be to have two note directories both
open and linked to the verse, one in the user notes area and
one floating? That way, one could easily see what needs to be
copied in which direction between two sets of notes.

6)Would it be possible to highlight the chosen verse when you
get there by clicking on something in the resource summary,
particularly in grammars? (It happens in lexicons. In denser
grammars like Gesenius, it can be hard to locate the verse in
question if the link can't open to it directly, as happens
when the chapter is not longer than the screen, ie. no
scrolling is possible.)

7) In the search window, after a search has been run, you can
right click and copy verse to the editor. Might there be a way
to get those into the editor or notes with a link
automatically created, so one doesn't need to link a copied
list of references manually?

8) Ability to use colored text as a search filter/limit, ie.
"limit search to text in red." That way, one could search
solely on words of Jesus or direct speech or E or whatever one
has marked.

[wezlo]

BW7 is VERY broken under wine in linux. While I always hope for a native port (I keep saying, if you port BW to QT you can create binaries for win/lin/mac and you'd be rocking), I know your resources are limited. Is there any way you can make direct contact with codeweavers or winehq and have them debug future BW releases against winelib. They are helpful folk - Codeweavers did just put out an offer to make ANY app work with cxoffice that they got a license for.

Guys, please take them up on it, even in the buggy state I know that BW7 rocks and I don't want to return it because i can't use it!

[jakemccarty]

Ben,

Thanks for your post--I always appreciate having another philologist to on this board. I too have sent Mike several of your suggestions, even providing links to Accordance (which offers some of these modules) and to BS at UCLA who did the parsing. I inquired later, asking about the possibility of including these modules and the response I got suggested that he hadn't really looked into yet.

I think the main problem is that most of the users use Greek much more often and addressing that problem is another issue. I graduated from a seminary that has a very strong reputation for Greek and Hebrew, but very, very few of the students were able to read Hebrew well after the program and pretty much gave up.

1. I think that a major priority should be to include Jastrow. As it is, unless one has had a fairly significant amount of Targumic Aramaic, the BW platform does not help that much. "Biblical Aramaic" is one thing, but T. Jonathan is quite another--it'd be like expecting someone to be able to translate a fairly tough book of the Bible without a concordance. Since it's not under copyright, I can't imagine why it's not included. Being able to access some of the most important translations/paraphrases of the HB is a sin qua non of responsible study.

2. As far as the NW inscriptions, I would also like to seem them on BW very much, especially since it is already on Accordance. But I think it would be important to add a link to InscriptiFact to actually look at the inscriptions themselves. As F. Cross said, "no real epigraphist would trust the drawings of another" (though I'm more of a dilettante!). As I mentioned earlier however, dealing with the Iron-Age Hebrew inscriptions is water that many evangelicals/conservatives/fundamentalists don't like to tread in because of some of the implications they raise (K. Ajrud, K. Qom, etc.).

3. I love your idea on important the Ugaritic texts. But again, I think it would be important to have it linked to Inscriptifact in order to address the variant transcriptions. In this respect, I think it would be important to be able to parse and vocalize texts and to incorporate those into the database (rather than separate notes). DULOT (and CAD) are probably really, really long shots.

4. In addition to your suggestions, I think it would also be important to include the parsed Mishnah. It is already in electronic format and as Golb would say: Tan. Hb is essential for understanding the development of the language and for reading the DSS. And to that, I think it would be helpful to have an English translation of the DSS (Vermes). As you've probably noticed, there are some severe parsing problems (esp with the Hiphils).

5. I also think JM Hb grammar would be important. It too is in electronic format already.

All these suggestions seem quite reasonable, especially considering the strength of the resources available in Greek. Of course I'm sure I'll never see DULOT, CAD (or CDA even), Bauer, Tropper (w/ Pardee's notes of course!), TDOT, Huhn historical HB grammar, DNSI, and Renz and Rollig 4 volume set.

BTW: I still have not recieved my BW7, but what tradition is the Aramaic pointed in?

[Ben Spackman]

Excellent suggestions (the opinion of one dilettante to another )

I assume, as do you, that most users are focused on the Greek of the NT, which is natural for Christians to do. (I've been reading a bit about Marcion recently, and everything I find mentions how modern Christianity has plenty of pseudo-Marcionites who reject the OT in practice.)

The targums are all vocalized in Tiberian. I believe the CAL folks provide them this way, but I wish we had the option for Babylonian vocalization.

[Jonhenry]

It would be great if the references to the Apostolic Fathers were hyperlinked just like the Scripture references. I was going through my new BDF module yesterday and noticed that one has to manually go to those addresses.

[Michael Hanel]

It would be great if the references to the Apostolic Fathers were hyperlinked just like the Scripture references. I was going through my new BDF module yesterday and noticed that one has to manually go to those addresses.

Don't forget adding links for Josephus and Philo too

[Jonhenry]

I put in my suggestion to the BW staff about having fully interactive hyperlinks for Philo, Josephus and ANF in BDAG, BDF etc. It would be a big timesaver for those of us who spend a lot of time in that corner of NT research. I'm sure they're swamped right now, but maybe they can get around to it sometime.

[gcalton]

I know they are busy as well, but at a future time I would love to see this concordance/lexicon added. It is great for word studies as well as NT research and exegesis.

Rengstorf, Karl Heinrich
Complete Concordance to Flavius Josephus, Unabridged Study Edition


In Christ,
garrell

[Jonhenry]

Here is a note from the BW staff regarding the suggestion I made above. I think they are very busy working on many of the items mentioned by users on this forum.

Dear Jonathan,

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We'll implement it as soon as
feasible. We'll need to ask your patience, because we have a lengthy list
of good suggestions to implement and not very many implementors, but we'll
get to it as soon as we can.

Please continue to submit suggestions. BibleWorks is what it is largely
because of the excellent suggestions from its customer community.

[jakemccarty]

Ben:

There we have precisely what we've been talking about. We are the only ones interested in seeing these HB resources made available, and I don't think $100 would cover the cost of production--even if it is already available in electronic format or is not copywritten. Such is our plight as philologists. I find it interesting that the only LDS on the board is willing to draw connections to Marcion. (As an aside, I took Church History at seminary and we were quick to vilify Marcion, but I've never really read him--only small snipets--so all I know about him is that he was a pretty bad dude with good intentions.)

I was wondering if it would be possible to create a link to Accordance... I think that will be our only hope of seeing these basic resources in computer format.